Hawaiki Cable: New Zealand and Australia's Pacific Lifeline

Cable profile based on GeoCables monitoring data - 24 health checks recorded

Named after the mythical Polynesian homeland, Hawaiki is a 15,000 km transpacific submarine cable inaugurated in 2018. This cable serves as a critical lifeline for New Zealand and Australia's international internet connectivity, offering essential redundancy and capacity. It connects the US West Coast (Oregon) to <a href="/location/sydney-nsw-australia">Sydney</a> and Auckland, with intermediate stops in Hawaii and American Samoa, delivering connectivity to some of the world’s most geographically isolated internet users.

The Route

Oregon (Nedonna Beach, US) → Hawaii (Oahu) → American Samoa (Tutuila) → Tonga (Nuku'alofa) → New Zealand (Mangawhai Heads) → Australia (Sydney)

• Total Length: 15,000 km across the vast Pacific Ocean.

• Additional Branches: Includes a branch to New Caledonia. A branch to Kiribati was proposed but ultimately not constructed.

Why Hawaiki Was Built

Before Hawaiki, New Zealand's international internet connectivity was heavily dependent on the Southern Cross Cable (US-Hawaii-Fiji-NZ/Australia). A single fault on Southern Cross - which has occurred multiple times - could reduce New Zealand's international bandwidth by 50% or more.

Hawaiki addressed these vulnerabilities by providing:

• Route Diversity: A physically separate second cable to the US, ensuring redundancy.

• Increased Capacity: Designed for over 30 Tbps, significantly surpassing the older, lower-capacity Southern Cross system.

• Connectivity for American Samoa: Offering high-capacity cable connectivity to the territory for the first time.

• Enhanced Options for Tonga: Expanding international connectivity for this Pacific island nation.

The Tonga Volcanic Eruption Test

In January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption caused catastrophic damage to Tonga’s submarine cable connection, leaving the nation reliant on satellite communication for several weeks. The Hawaiki cable’s Tonga branch also sustained damage during this event.

This incident highlighted the extreme vulnerability of small island nations that depend on a single submarine cable landing point. When such a cable is disrupted - whether by natural disasters, fishing activities, or ship anchors - the entire nation can lose its international internet access.

Pacific Island Connectivity: The Last Frontier

The Pacific Islands present some of the most challenging conditions for establishing reliable connectivity due to:

• Vast Distances: Small, dispersed population centers separated by thousands of kilometers.

• Economic Constraints: Limited financial incentives for costly cable infrastructure.

• Geological Risks: Seismic and volcanic activity that can damage undersea cables.

• Climate Change: Rising sea levels threatening shore-end infrastructure.

Hawaiki has made significant strides in addressing these challenges for American Samoa and Tonga. However, many Pacific island nations remain dependent on single cables or expensive satellite links, leaving them vulnerable to outages.

GeoCables Monitoring: 24 Health Checks

GeoCables has conducted 24 health checks on the Hawaiki cable, with a focus on the critical Oregon-New Zealand segment:

• Oregon → Hawaii: Approximately 70 ms latency over 4,200 km.

• Hawaii → Auckland: Approximately 100 ms latency over 7,100 km.

• Total Oregon → Auckland: Roughly 170 ms theoretical minimum latency.

This performance is notably efficient compared to the Belarus → New Zealand route in our database, which experiences 311 ms latency via Moscow. The direct Pacific routing of Hawaiki demonstrates a significant advantage over Eurasian transit routes.

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GeoCables monitors the Hawaiki cable with 24 health checks. View status →